MBA specifications

A wide choice

While conventional streams of MBA continue to be in demand, offbeat streams are fast finding their way into the curriculum, says Shilpa Sachdev

Earlier if someone had to do an MBA, the choices were limited. Finance, marketing or human resources would be the only options to choose from since these were the important sectors in any organisation. However, with the growth of information technology, systems management became a key area to master and hence many schools introduced an MBA programme that offered a specialisation in computers. But with time as job opportunities multiplied more and more areas opened up requiring specialised knowledge. And today we have schools offering MBA programmes for retail, hospitality, media and so on.

For those who enjoy number crunching and math calculations, MBA in finance is the ideal choice. With the Indian economy growing and becoming more global in nature, there is an undying need for finance experts to manage the growth. Those with finance expertise can work with banks and financial institutions like the stock market and brokerage firms and different wealth and finance consulting companies in various analyst and associate capacities. It is a rewarding proposition especially for those doing a CA, ICWA or CS. All in all, an MBA in finance offers a highly challenging job environment and a very stimulating career.

If the word ‘brand’ ticks with you, marketing is the place to be. It involves putting the product in a market and making it sell. It is a complete front end activity that requires one to be in the market to gauge what works and what does not. An MBA degree in marketing will prepare you in different areas like ideating a concept, research, advertising, marketing strategies and promotions. As a part of your final projects you can expect activities like creating your own brand and marketing it to the public to give you a feel of the actual market. If brand management and sales management is what interests you, an MBA in marketing is the way ahead.

Interpersonal relations are at every level in the organisation and those in the human relations department are responsible to strike a balance. The role of a human resources person involves dealing with people at various levels in the organisation and maintaining cordial relations with one and all. The common role of an HR person includes dealing with recruitment, staffing, organisation structure, work environment, employee retention, and a host of other activities. An MBA in Human Resources will train you to deal with people, maintain calm and deal with unstructured situations at hand. If you are a people’s man, a smooth talker, someone who can negotiate well, this is your domain.

Operations management deals with taking care of the supply chain activities of an organisation starting right from areas like inventory management, vendor management and the overall sourcing activity. It mainly looks into the backend processes of the company that help achieve efficiency levels in an organisation. Since this field involves need of technical knowledge, an MBA in Operations Management will help you train better if this is your area of interest. 

With all activities increasingly getting computerised, systems management has assumed great importance in current times. The IT department of a company integrates all the systems and creates linkages. Under systems management, one has to handle the entire IT requirement of the company starting with creating, coding, updating different software, regular monitoring and maintenance of the computer systems and the server and so on.  

Different B-schools are known for their different specialisations. So once you have decided on your field of specialisation you should choose your B-school such that it is the best in your chosen field. Also, one must also decide whether one wants to pursue a one year or two year MBA. The one year course is more intensive and so it is preferably a better choice to opt for a two-year programme that allows more time and further specialisation in the second year. There is also an option of doing part-time MBA which runs over three years. 

Several universities have also started offering dual specialisations that helps the students get the knowledge of two different fields during the course tenure. Generally, one subject has to be chosen as the major and another one as the minor subject. So if you are interested in both finance and systems, you could major in finance and select systems as your minor subject. Apart from the conventional streams available, many schools are offering highly specialized subjects like retail, hospitality, media and so on as other options to choose for within dual specialisations. Many schools also offer comprehensive two year MBA programmes for the same. 

The MBA programme today is no more restricted to the conventional streams; there is an MBA programme for even a peculiar field of interest - be it arts or biosciences or pharmaceuticals or even something as niche as Islamic banking, petroleum management or even wine management. However, it is advisable that one clearly understands what subject one is most comfortable with to select the right programme for maximum effectiveness in their job run. And those with a chunk of experience on their CV can always consider an executive MBA programme to up their resume.